Breaking the periodic arrangement of atoms for the enhanced electrochemical reduction of nitrogen and water oxidation

Abstract

The development of cost-effective and highperformance electrocatalysts has been increasingly studied to mitigate upcoming energy and environmental challenges. Amorphization and heterointerface engineering have played significant roles in the rational design of electrocatalysts and modulation of their electrocatalytic activities. However, the synergistic effect between amorphization and heterointerfaces has been scarcely reported. As a proof-of-concept attempt, we develop amorphous FeMo (a-FeMo) electrocatalysts with an abundance of heterointerfaces that are composed of amorphous components and evaluate their electrocatalytic performances toward the nitrogen reduction reaction and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Benefitting from the synergistic effect between the amorphous nature of the a-FeMo electrocatalysts, which offer a high density of active sites, and significant electron redistribution at the heterointerfaces, the electrocatalysts exhibit a high Faradaic efficiency of 29.15%, an elevated yield rate of 71.78 µg mg h NH cat .1 1 3 with long-term stability at a potential of −0.1 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode and excellent electrocatalytic activity toward the OER. This study provides a promising and effective method for the rational design of low-cost heterogeneous catalysts with desirable efficiency, selectivity, and stability.

Amorphous versus crystalline CoSx anchored on CNTs as heterostructured electrocatalysts toward hydrogen evolution reaction

“…The excellent electrochemical performance is closely related to the electron transport ability and large ESCA of the catalyst [7,22,29,32,[34][35][36]. Therefore, electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was used to measure the charge transport kinetics in the electrocatalysis.…”

“…Amorphous engineering of nanomaterials is considered as a powerful and compelling strategy to achieve enhanced properties in various applications [1][2][3][4][5][6][7], especially electrocatalysis [7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Compared with crystalline counterparts, amorphous nanomaterials tend to have outstanding electrocatalytic performance, due to the three-dimensional catalytic interface, abundant defect sites, and superior self-structural recovery ability [5,[14][15][16][17].…”

Boosting Nitrogen Reduction Activity by Defect Engineering in 2D Iron Monochalcogenides FeX (X=S, Se)

“…[ 15 ] This catalyst provided different types of active sites (Co and Fe) for N 2 adsorption and its 2D nature ensured a large density of active sites, surpassing the performance of its monometallic counterparts. Synergy of other transition metals and iron was also reported to boost catalytic activity toward e‐N2RR, including Cu [ 16 ] and Mo [ 17 ] and Ni, [ 18 ] just to list a few. Within the approach of alloy engineering, it is worthy to draw special attention on nitrogenase‐inspired catalysts.…”

Synthesis of NiSe2/Fe3O4 Nanotubes with Heteroepitaxy Configuration as a High‐Efficient Oxygen Evolution Electrocatalyst

“…However, insufficient exposure of active sites on the surface of the bulk electrocatalysts is still intractable, making a relative slow ions transport passing throughout the catalyst and thereby limiting their electrochemical performance. [22][23][24] Therefore, a rational design of specific nanostructures for the transition metal-based electrocatalysts is imperative to effectively promote their electrocatalytic OER performance.As we know, the catalytic performance is closely related to both the surface and bulk properties of a catalyst, where the former includes the intrinsic activity of the catalytically active sites and their accessible amount, while the latter mainly means the electron conductivity. [25][26][27] Compared with solid electrocatalysts, the ones with hollow nanostructures have exhibited desirable advantages in electrocatalytic OER.…”

“…However, insufficient exposure of active sites on the surface of the bulk electrocatalysts is still intractable, making a relative slow ions transport passing throughout the catalyst and thereby limiting their electrochemical performance. [22][23][24] Therefore, a rational design of specific nanostructures for the transition metal-based electrocatalysts is imperative to effectively promote their electrocatalytic OER performance.…”